


Lend A Paw

by idiotlord



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 09:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6512851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotlord/pseuds/idiotlord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an interesting fight with an akuma, Ladybug said something that got Adrien wondering.</p><p>Jerking a thumb towards his blond friend, he retorted, “My man Adrien here, heard that word from the grapevine is that girls have a thing with dudes with big hands.”</p><p>“Nino!” Adrien scolded quietly, feeling his heat rise around his neck in embarrassment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lend A Paw

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this video: http://studiotrigger.tumblr.com/post/136260515822

Another day, another upset civilian is being manipulated by their negative emotion by Hawkmoth in an attempt to reek havoc in the beautiful city of Paris with the condition to obtain the Miraculous Stones the famous super hero duo possess. And this time their opponent was a stressed out office worker who finds solace in playing rhythm app games on his phone but when someone at work caused him to miss a beat that cost him his champion position on a special online event, lo and behold: Beat King.

“Is it me or are people getting upset over the littlest things lately?” Ladybug asked aloud as she winded up her yoyo for a toss.

“I was thinking more on the line of stupidest things, but that works too. And to answer that, yes.” Chat Noir responded casually, twirling his staff between his fingers. “Let’s get this _game over_ with.”

Rather than reacting to his puns, she just tossed her yoyo with a drawn out sigh and swings away. His chuckles followed after her.

“As long as I’m number one, no one can beat me! Ha ha ha!” the Akuma laughed evilly as he stormed the streets, tossing balls of music notes around.

“Number one, eh? We’ll see about that. Lucky Charm!” Tossing her yoyo in the air, she wait in anticipation as the magic spins around and dropped… “A game token? What am I suppose to do with this?”

She quickly scanned around her surroundings and caught sight of the large rhythm game console at the center of the arcade that connects to the akuma. And as she recalled, he did mentioned something about his powers coming from being the top score. Only problem was the game. While she’s a pro on the game controller, she’s not really good at arcade game systems. Or rhythm games. Her eyes can focus on the beat but her hands always missed the spots she wanted on the general panel that’s design to fit hands of all sizes. Just not hers.

“Need a paw, my lady?”

Opening her mouth to snap something at him, her eyes caught his hands and a flash of inspiration (and spots) appeared. “Actually, that’s exactly what I need. Chat, come here!”

At her command, he landed right in front of her. He waits for her to tell him the plan when she grabbed his wrists and tugged him towards her.

“M-My lady?” he yelped as he allowed himself to be manhandled by her. She pulled him towards the large touch-screen computer panel where it displays the Akuma’s top score. She turned her body around so her back is facing his front and tugged his forearm forward which caused him to press his body heavily against her. A dark blush heated his face and he can feel his heartbeat speeding up. “Ladybug?”

“ _ **READY**_.” A loud mechanical voice spoke over him as the screen changed into colorful boxsets and classical music is cued. “ ** _GO_**.”

With a strength one does not expect from such a tiny girl, Ladybug started tugging and slamming his palms against the glass panels like drumsticks in sync with the music. Chat let out a few “ow”s and winces at the rough movements and for a second he wondered if this was what it felt like if he was conscious during those times he was possessed as a puppet by the enemy. Maybe if he hit his head hard enough, he could knock himself out to avoid the pain in his arms.

Then he felt Ladybug’s soft back press against his hips and the warmth of her hands through the suit on his arms. On second thought, he could just distract himself from the pain by memorizing the feel of her body. Not that it’s creepy or anything. Because he loves her. And it’s natural to want to be close to the one you love. Wanting to touch them. Hug them. Smell them. Kiss them. Chat Noir has never felt so happy to be conscious and controlled by another person than right now. Especially since the person who’s controlling him was Ladybug.

Unbeknownst of her partner’s internal dilemma, Ladybug was in the zone. Matching to the beat of the music which thankfully she recognized and know by heart since it’s Jagged Stone, she’s able to time it perfectly. With her tongue sticking out in concentration, she was in full-gamer mode and was determined to beat the highest score and reclaim the title of King of Gaming. And unlike all the other times she played before, she’s actually hitting all the spots she wanted! Well… Chat Noir’s hitting them but whatever. She’s in control of this ship!

By the end of the song and a few seconds for Ladybug entered ‘LBCN’ in the number one slot, the duo quickly rushed out into the streets just in time to see Beat King losing his crown before he could shoot at an innocent civilian with a music note. After that, it took less than five minutes to destroy the akuma, magically fix all the damages to the city and clear things up with the victims.

“Pound it!” They bumped their fists with grins on their faces.

“So… that was fun. We should do that again.” He leaned close to her flirtatiously.

She raised a brow. “What? Fighting akumas? I don’t think we have a choice, kitty.”

“Actually, I was talking about this.” With flourish, he took hold of one of her hand and pulled her in with a small twirl so she was in his arms like before. She was caught by surprised at the sudden position and stared up at him. “If you wanted to cuddle, you can count on me, my lady. Or you can just go ahead and hold on. I’m more than happy to snuggle up with you.”

She blinked once. Twice. Then started to giggle and smoothly twirled out his hold while pushing his forehead back with a finger. “Thanks, kitty, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. But don’t hold your breath. This is kind of a one-time thing.”

He let out a disappointed sigh and playfully put a hand to his heart. “So cruel, my lady, to tempt me with such a treat and then denying me it. I don’t know if my heart can take the pain. Or my hands.”

“I didn’t hit that hard, you baby.” She rolled her eyes.

“You can’t feel how my hands feel right now. Even I can’t feel them since they’re numb! I bet they’re swollen underneath my gloves. Again, so cruel, Ladybug.”

Trying not to let the guilt get to her, she defended, “We needed to get every hit to win the highest score in order to defeat the akuma. And I remembered watching a video that had this person using their cat to win a touchscreen game because it’s paw pad covered more surface than a finger.”

There was a moment of silence.

“…so you used me… because of a cat video…?”

“And because you have big hands.”

“…I have big hands…?”

“Uh-huh. They’re really nice.”

“Oh.” He stared for a second as his brain tried to process the information before a flirtatious smile grew on his face. “Well, my lady, if you wanted to hold my hand, all you’d have to do was-”

“Oops! Sorry, got to run before my transformation runs out. Bye, Chat Noir!” Tossing her yoyo to the closest building, she tossed a little wink over her shoulder before letting herself be dragged by the string.

Alone, he sighed longingly after her before his ring reminded him that he should follow suit.

 

 

The next day in class, Adrien can’t help but stare at his hands in a daze. Ladybug’s words still buzzing in his head and he’s conflicted between feeling flattered by her compliment or disappointed that she used him for such purposes. Well, at least he was able to be literally close to her and can say that they hold hands – technically she was holding his hands but semantics.

“Yo, dude, you okay?” he jumped and looked to the side to see his friend, Nino giving him a funny look. “You’ve been staring at your hand for a long time. You hurt or something?”

“Huh? Uh no, it’s nothing!” he laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Unconvinced, the other just raised a brow at him so he shrugged and explained, “Uh, I just heard – from a totally random person – that um… some girls… like guys with… big hands?”

“For real?”

“Hey, that’s what I heard!”

“Heard what?” Alya’s voice ranged from the desk above them, joining herself into the conversation.

Turning around in their chairs, they looked up to the girls seated behind them. Alya had a wide grin and a familiar spark in her eyes that they recognized as her “journalist-mode”; where she caught a scent of a big scoop and there’s no stopping her from trying to dig up for info. Usually she focuses on the city’s duo heroes but she can’t pass up interesting gossips.

“Yo, Alya, you’re a girl, right?” Nino asked jokingly, laughing when she gave him a flat look. “Tell me what you think about guys with big hands.”

“Guys with big hands?” she repeated slowly, slowly processing the information while trying to understand its correlations to the conversation. “Why?”

Jerking a thumb towards his blond friend, he retorted, “My man Adrien here, heard that word from the grapevine is that girls have a thing with dudes with big hands.”

“Nino!” Adrien scolded quietly, feeling his heat rise around his neck in embarrassment.

“What? You got me all curious about this too, dude. Now I gotta know the truth. So, what’s the verdict, madam reporter: myth or fact?”

Alya tapped her cheek thoughtfully. “Well, I guess it depends on the girl but I can confirm that hands are the first things girls notice on a guy. Besides their faces.”

“Whoa, really?” Both boys were surprised by the fact.

“Yeah. Right, Marinette?” she nudged the girl next to her.

As if remembering she was also there, the boys turned their attention to the dark haired girl beside her. She flinched at the sudden attention. Having quietly listening to the conversation, she knew what they were talking about and nodded in agreement.

“So faces, I’d understand. But why hands?” Nino asked.

Alya held out her hand with a slight smirk. "Here, let me show you. Nino, give me your hand."

Suspicious, the boy in the cap gave her a wary look. "Why?"

"Just give it!" Instead of waiting for his response, she leaned over the desk to grab his hand up and held it against hers, palms together and fingers slightly spread. "See? You can't help but compare the difference."

Now focused on their hands, they can't help but became fascinated. It's not just different hands touching each other but two _very different_ hands touching. First was the difference of sizes, Nino's hand was almost twice as big as Alya's. Next was the color with Alya being lighter than his but he never noticed how her skin was more of a caramel shade rather than plain brown or tan. And the final but most intimate thing Nino noticed that he can't help but feel amazed and slightly embarrassed by was the heat. Sure, he felt her grab and drag him before when she needed a partner for her adventures but this was the first time he's fully conscious of it. Her hand was cool, not ice cold but not as hot as his. And he was also very conscious of how much body heat he actually gives it compared to her.

"Okay. This is getting trippy." He finally said after what felt like hours of self-evaluation in the span of a few seconds. "I think I'm learning more about Alya than I think I should. Maybe too much."

That just got the girls giggling and his friend still stared at their combined hands.

“I never knew how big your hands are, Nino.” Adrien observed.

“I wouldn’t say my hands are that big.” Nino defended, pulling his hand back reluctantly. “Hey, you should try it too.”

Alya just laughed and turned to Marinette and Adrien who were watching them in fascination. Motioning her head, she said, "Marinette, you do it too."

It took a few seconds for Alya's message to telepathically transfers to Marinette and she almost squeaked aloud if her mouth wasn't closed. Alya has been listening to her friend go on and on about all the times she was able to touch Adrien's hand to the point that she felt like they were her memories. That it was she who brushed fingers with Adrien when he offered his umbrella, or when his hands cupped hers when taking the bowler hat, or when their fingers knocked together multiple times when reaching for a game controller, or the time – stop! You get the picture. Alya needs to hook her girl with some action.

Marinette looked between Adrien’s excited handsome face and the hand he held out to her before shyly moving her hand from her chest to his. Just like the first time they’ve touched hands, her finger tips lightly bumped his before she forged forward and pressed her hands fully against his. When their hands finally meet, his smile widened to the point his eyes crinkled. It was the same smile that she fell in love with. He looked so happy that her heart skipped a beat and all the air left her lungs.

As if their roles are reversed, Alya and Nino are now the ones watching their friends like an interesting science project with huge grins on their faces at their reactions. Marinette was stiff, almost resembling a statue. Despite his earlier protests, Adrien was very curious when their hands touched and he can’t help but compare the differences. He was also glad to have an opportunity to interact with the girl in hope of becoming better friends. And because of his limited social interactions with kids his age, the model didn’t think of filtering his words before it came out.

“Wow, Marinette, you’re tiny!”

“W-What? Hey, I-I’m not that small! You’re just uh, too…too big!” she blurts out the first thing that pops up in her head. After a few seconds, her brain finally registered what she just said and her whole face turned red like a cherry. “I-I mean, your hands are not _that_ big! Your body is big so it fits. N-Not that I’m saying you’re fat or a-anything. Because you’re aren’t! Fat, I mean. I-It’s actually very well-proportion to your head. N-Not that I was l-looking or anything like that- argh!”

Instead of feeling insulted, the model found her stuttering answer amusing and interesting to the point he has to hold himself back from laughing aloud. Adrien covers his smile behind his hand as he watch his small classmate try to bury her blushing face into her hands. Which wasn’t covering much since he now realized how small they are. Patches of red skin peeks around the edge of her hands so he could see how embarrassed she is.

“I’m glad to know that I’m proportionally big.” He grins playfully at her. “But you’re still tiny.”

She tried to glare at him from between her fingers but the redness of her cheeks took away the threatening effects as she grumbled a response. “I’m not tiny. I’m average!”

“There’s nothing wrong with having baby hands, Marinette.” He can’t help but tease, seeing the rare spark of fire in her eyes on her usual blushing face. This was a side he’s never interacted with before and something inside the back of his mind is urging him to keep pushing, just to see how far he can get away with.

“ _Excuse me_! But these so called ‘baby hands’ beat all the boys in Ultra Mega Strike 3, in case you’ve forgot!”

“So? You’re good at pushing small buttons. Doesn’t mean you don’t have soft, delicate baby hands.”

“H-How would you know they’re soft or delicate? Maybe I’m in a secret underground fight club and have calluses and bruised knuckles, huh?” she narrowed her eyes, feeling strangely insulted.

Suddenly she felt her hand being tugged in front of her as Adrien began to carefully examine her hand with a critical eye. She was so stunned by his bold action that she couldn’t do anything as he strokes and prods her hand from the heel of her palms to the tip of her fingers. 

After his observation, he chuckled softly and shook his head. “Nope, your hands are as soft and smooth as a kitten’s paw. And just as small as one too.”

Marinette was affronted.

From the side, Alya and Nino continued to watch in amusement and fascination as the pair interact. The young blogger was debating between recording this on her phone or respecting her best friend’s embarrassment while listening to Nino’s ridiculous voiceover as if he’s documenting wild animals in a bad Australian accent. “And here we have Paris’ blond teen heartthrob interacting with the opposite gender. Watch as he tries to communicate through the mating ritual of hand-touching. Amazing! Have you ever seen such a display of disgusting adolescent romance?”

Alya just snorts and resumed recording the moment for memory. And blackmail material for future references. “Looks like things are about to go down, DJ Dundee.”

Nino glanced over his shoulders to see the small French-Asian girl turning red with annoyance rather an embarrassment which seemed to go unnoticed by the blond boy who’s still playing with her hands like a doll. Facing the camera phone again, he raised a brow and waved his arm like a magician displaying his next trick. “It seems the female is about to reciprocate his mating ritual with her fists. Let us watch.”

Annoyed, Marinette ripped her hands out of his hold. At least, she tried to. On any other day, she would swoon and marvel at the idea of touching and holding hands with her crush. Unfortunately at the moment, she just wanted to swipe at him. If she ever get her hands back that is. He’s surprisingly strong. As she kept tugging, she kept noticing something about his hands.

“Your hands are rough.”

Surprised by the comment, Adrien dropped his hold to scratch the back of his head with a sheepish smile while avoiding eye contact. It’s a common trait he has whenever he has to come up with a lie. “O-Oh, uh yeah. T-They’re from uh… rock climbing! I have a rock climbing wall in my room my hands gets rough and stuff. From rock climbing. Yeah. Right, Nino?”

“It was huge!” was his friend’s only contribution.

“See?” Adrien gave a weak smile, hoping they would buy into his lie.

Marinette just frowned and scrunched her nose in thought. “Shouldn’t you be using gloves or something? You’re a model so you need to be careful with your body.”

“R-Right! That’s what my dad is always telling me.”

“I kind of thought being a model, your hands would be more, you know… softer? All manicured and moisturized? Or like a girl’s.”

Now it was Adrien who’s frowning as he pointed back to Marinette. “Sorry but I’m still a guy with guy hands. And you’re a girl with _girly_ , _soft_ and _tiny_ hands.”

At her wits ends, Marinette turned to her best friend for moral support. “Alya! My hands aren’t that small, are they?”

With attention turning towards her, she quickly hid her phone behind and slipped it in her back pocket. Not wanting to be drawn in their ridiculous battle, Alya took one of Marinette’s hands and held it against her own, palms together. “Don’t worry, girl, your hands are average size. See? We’re almost the same.”

Instantly relieved, Marinette broke into a wide grin and couldn’t resist linking their fingers together. The power of friendship between girls. Adrien doesn’t know what possessed him – probably Chat Noir – to say the next thing that the more logical part of his mind understands would cause more trouble but he felt like this is the golden opportunity to interact and break the invisible barrier between them, finally enabling her to open up to him. Also he for some strange reason, he found it fun to rile up the smaller girl.

‘Maybe this is why Chloé has a strange fixation on antagonizing Marinette,’ he secretly thought. His inner sadist – something he’d never really knew he had; probably still Chat Noir – is tickled. Aloud, he said, “ _Almost_. But Marinette’s still just a _tiny_ bit smaller.”

Like a child who just got their favorite toy taken away and is looking for revenge, Marinette snapped her head towards him with an adorably frustrated pout. Her round cheeks are puffed out, brows bunching into an angry bow and her face is a nice shade of angry pink.

“ _I’m not tiny_!”

“I didn’t say _you_ were. I said _your hands_ were.”

“Just because my hands are small doesn’t mean I’m like a baby!” she growled. “Besides, bigger hands aren’t that great. I bet I can still beat you in video games.”

“Not all video games.” The boy countered. “I heard that people with small hands aren’t that great in phone games. Apparently, their little fingers are too small for touch screens.”

“Well…” as much as she wanted to defend herself, she can’t really argue with that fact since she’s one of those people.

Seeing her faltered, his eyes widened excitedly. “So it's true? You’re bad at phone games?”

“I didn’t say anything. S-shut up.”

“It’s okay not to be good at gaming, Marinette.”

She just gave him a dirty look. Her face in full pouting mode. “Touch screen games are dumb.”

“You’re just jealous that I’m good at phone games with my _manly_ hands.” Adrien can’t help but boast as modestly as he can. If it were Chat Noir, he would come off as arrogant but as Adrien, his ‘innocent demeanor’ allows him to get away with it.

She scoffed. “Right, cause I’m totally jealous about that.”

“If you need any help passing a level, Marinette, all you have to do is ask.” He offered kindly with a smile. To the eyes of the public, he has an unnaturally angelic glow around him but that just ticked her off even more. Curse all models and their pretty punchable-yet-unpunchable faces.

“You better watch what you say next, Agreste. Or you’ll regret it.” She glared at him, shaking her fist.

The heavenly smile on his face grew wider as he leaned in. “Oh?”

From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a pair of their classmates passing by door. It was Kim and Alix. And like a lightening strike, Marinette instantly remembered something that occurred literally a few days ago that she witnessed. Taking a deep breathe in an effort to calm down, she forced herself to look neutral as possible. For this plan to work, her face must not give anything away. “Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“The news?” when he shook his head, she continued, “They say scientists found out that if your hand is bigger than your face, you might have cancer.”

Adrien’s green eyes widened in surprise. “Seriously?”

“Yep. So I wouldn’t be bragging about ‘manly hands’ if I were you.” She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smirking. She could see Alya and Nino, who were listening in, trying to hold in their laughter for they knew what will happen next.

Concerned, he stared down at one of his hand and instinctively raised it up towards his face in an attempt to measure it’s size. In a moment that was too fast for his mind to process, his palm seemed to have grown bigger right in front of his eyes. His first thought was that maybe he does have cancer and wondered what kind of cancer it was. Then he wondered how long he has to live. And if this is an affect from being Chat Noir. And oh no, how was he going to tell his father! _Ow_. His nose hurts. Wait…

At the sound of laughter exploding around him, Adrien was conscious of his surrounding again. He could see Alya and Nino cracking up from beside him. Kim and Alix who appeared out of no where laughing and pointing at him. And Marinette was just giggling madly behind her hands. _Why does his face hurt_?!

Incredibly he looked at the dark haired girl in in shock. “Did you… did you hit my face?”

“ _I_ didn’t. _Your hand_ hit your face.” She corrected him with a suspiciously innocent face.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you fell for it, man!” Kim hooted out, still laughing up a storm. “That’s like, the oldest trick in the book!”

The short pink-haired girl beside him elbowed his ribs. “What are you laughing at, meathead. _You_ fell for it _last week_ when I did it to you!”

“I told you not to talk about it again!” A look of embarrassment covered his face, cutting off his laughter. The girl just shrugged and causally skated away while the jock followed behind her.

As his friends continued to laugh at his expense, Adrien pouted. He should be thankful that the whole class wasn’t here to witness his naivety. Some of them would go out of their way to remind him for a long time. If he was truly lucky, Plagg was asleep when it happened and wouldn’t bring it up the moment they got home. But then again, he was a black cat.

Gingerly rubbing his sensitive nose, he pouted again. “You do know I’m a model, right? My face is kind of the money-maker.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t hit you too hard, did I?” her laughing expression was now swapped with concern and a little panic.

He _almost_ felt bad when he saw the change in her demeanor and _almost_ wanted to reassure her just to see her smile again. But when she reached out to touch his face, slim smooth fingers fluttering around his nose like little butterflies, that idea was tossed aside. Maybe he should just sit back and enjoy her apology.

“I don’t know, is there a bruise? You’re mean, Marinette.” He teased.

“Sorry. I didn’t think you’d fall for it.” She muttered apologetically. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and tried to use her thumbs to rub small circular motions around the area of his nose in hope of circulating the blood so there won’t be any bruising. “I still can’t believe you did.”

“Hey, I’m a sheltered kid who just started public school for about a year now. You know, my dad always warned me the outside world was full of dangerous people. Maybe you were the ‘dangerous people’ he’s been telling me about.”

Widening her eyes, she fluttered her lashes innocently. “Me? Dangerous? With my ‘ _tiny baby hands_ ’?”

He groaned. “Okay, I deserve that. No more talking about hands. Truce?”

“Truce.”

“… do we have to shake on it?”

Now she’s the one that groaned. “Really?”

A smirk on his face. “I couldn’t help it. The moment was handed to me.”

“Stop.”

“No, no, wait. I have one more. Hey, Marinette.”

“…what?”

“Am I still _hand_ some?”

She frowned and pinched his nose between her thumbs, causing him to flinch. He cried and quickly apologized. Feeling merciful, she quickly eased up and went back to massaging again to prevent any permanent scaring that she might’ve caused. It’s hard to gauge her strength these days after becoming Ladybug.

From the other end, Adrien was trying his best not to fall asleep. Being a professional model, he can’t say he’s not familiar with people touching his face with cosmetic tools or stylist’s hands when applying makeup or repositioning for the photo shoots. But he can say that none of it ever felt as good as Marinette’s. Maybe it’s because she grew up kneading dough in her family’s bakery or her hands are skilled from doing intricate hobbies like sewing, drawing and playing videos games. Or maybe she uses _Maybelline_!

A wide grin tugged at his lips from the internal joke. He didn’t want to laugh aloud for fear that it would stop the girl from continuing with whatever her magical hands are doing to his face. As he tried to swallow that laughter, it somehow got stuck in his chest and it began to rubble the vocal box near his throat. It went unnoticed for a moment until it started to sound like something between a buzzing sound to white noise. But again, he didn’t pay too much attention to it since the model is too busy enjoying having his face pampered.

However, one person did noticed. Someone who was close enough to hear and feel it. Right under her hands. Distracted by her own thoughts, her hands were absently massaging the boy’s face when she noticed the sound. Marinette turned her head around, trying to locate the noise until she finally found the source. Technically, she felt it.

The face in her hands is… vibrating? Surprised, she looked down to see his eyes closed and smiling happily. Her first reaction was to stop her fingers. The sound stopped and she was blinking at Adrien’s face in surprise when the smile begins to curls downward. It was curiosity that pushed her to do the next action. She moved her fingers once again.

The frown instantly morphed back into the smile and the sound returned with it. She continued for a few seconds before pausing. Again, the sounds stopped and the frown came back. She started again. He smiled and his throat vibrated. She paused. A frown and silence. A rub. A grin. A purr. Adrien Agreste was purring. Because of her hands.

Oh, she wished she could use one of her hands to grab her phone to record this. She needed to make this her new ring tone or something. Carefully, she tried to move one of her hand away and hoped he wouldn’t notice. But he did and tilted his head toward the other hand to seek comfort. Ironically, one small hand was not enough to satisfy him and a sad mewing sound started to escape his throat. It was then that Marinette couldn’t hold it in any longer and without her hands to hide behind, she giggled out loud.

Hearing the loud laughter, Adrien finally opened his eyes to see the laughing girl. “What?”

“Sorry,” she was able to say in between laughter. “But you were purring and then you meowed. Heh heh! It was… cute.”

Heat rose to his cheeks and he shyly looked away with a hand against this next as he confessed, “O-Oh, was I? Guess I couldn’t help it. You’re hands felt really nice, Marinette.”

Now she was also blushing, avoiding his gaze as she twiddled her hands. “T-Thank you. Y-Your hands are nice too.”

“Even though they’re bigger than my face?”

“They’re not that big…”

“They’re not as small as yours.”

“…you got a problem with small hands?”

“No. I think I’m starting to like small hands.”

“Good.”

“Hey. You think I can be a hand model?”

“Hmm. I don’t know. Maybe you should them up to your face again and then I’ll tell you.”

“I think I’m good. My body is already well-proportioned to my face.”

“My hand will be well-proportioned to your face if you keep this up, Agreste.”

“…I’m not actually against that, to be honest.”

“…”

Their eyes locked and somehow their hands seemed to have found their ways to one another and her linked. A small smooth hand tucked warmly against a large slightly rough hand. Like magic, they seemed to be pulled into one another and leaned closer… and closer… until…

Nino’s big hand sliced in between them in an air chop.

“OKAY. That’s enough for one day. It’s late and some of us would like to leave school.”

Suddenly aware that they are not alone, Marinette and Adrien quickly broke away from each other, babbling some nonsense as an excuse while their faces turned red. Nino and Alya just looked smug as they grabbed their bags and pushed their friends off their seats and towards the door.

“You guys can talk and plan for a date to hold hands and paint each others nails later.” Alya winked at them, causing them to blush darker. “But for now, let’s find something to eat.”

“You’ve read my mind, dude.” Nino high-fived her. “What’re you craving for? Finger food?”

Sending the pair behind them a side glance, the bespectacled friends laughed again at their best friends’ reactions – they replied with a “whatever” – and continued to chat as they led the way. Behind them, Adrien and Marinette followed in awkward silence. After a block and a half of walking, Marinette bravely broke the silence.

“So… have you seen the video of a guy playing a game on his phone using his cat?”

Recalling something similar to what Ladybug said, he shook his head. “I've heard about it. Is it popular?”

She nodded and pulled out her phone to find the video. “Yeah. Alya showed it to me cause it’s cute.”

“Anything with cats are always cute.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Together they watched the video was they walk, laughing along the way. Their hands brushed a couple of times but they didn’t comment. Maybe they will plan a hand date or something. From what Adrien heard, girls paint each other nails all the time so it should be fun. If he played his cards right, maybe he can convince Marinette to give him a manny-pedi. And he could return the favor too.

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to have this running theme of these kids holding hands. Maybe one day I'll raise them up to kissing each other on the cheeks. How racy! 
> 
> Thank you for reading this far! Any comment and critiques are welcomed.


End file.
